Monday, May 24, 2010

Oil Spill, Methane Hydrate, and Real Global Warming

BP is responsible for drilling one of the deepest oil wells in the world second only to the Russians. Off-shore drilling is limited to 22,000 ft, but workers have been documented as claiming this well was dug to 30,000 ft in 5000 ft water. Several attempts to cap the well have failed due to huge abouts of Methane Hydrate crystals which form and are hampering capping and siphoning efforts. Russians have drilled to 40,000ft and already discovered that there are unlimited amounts of oil at that depth but the pressures involved are too dangerous (Cola-SG3). In one case Russians were forced to use a mini-nuke to cap of of their deep wells.

From their experience in drilling deep wells, Russian scientist developed theories of abiotic formation of oil which says that the Earth forms oils as a natural process independent of bacteria or any need for fossils. What this means is that BP and other oil execs know that Peak Oil is a fraud. There is no limit to how much oil there is. The Bakken Formation in Montana and North Dakota has like 4 Saudi Arabia worth of Oil. ANWR alone could satisfy the US need for oil for 200 years.

Another issue here in addition to the poisoning of a 1/3 the US coastal waters and coastlines and the impact on whalesharks, bluefin tuna, and butterflies by oil and toxic corexit 9500 used as dispersant. The other issue here may be the large amounts of Methane being released into the atmosphere. While Co2 is not a greenhouse gas, Methane is a very significant greenhouse gas, second only to water vapor. So, I wonder how much methane is being released into the the atmosphere and what kind of effect that will have on global temperatures.

Another concern is about using an underwater nuclear device. Would a thermonuclear explosion release huge amounts of methane into the atmosphere? Also, the rate of the oil leak has increased to 200,000 bpd.